Chamber Music Trombone, Piano SKU: PR.144407320
Composed by Lauren Bernofsky. Set of Score and Parts. 16+8 pages. Duration 10 minutes. Merion Music #144-40732. Published by Merion Music (PR.144407320). ISBN 9781491135006. UPC: 680160685998.
From the pen of Lauren Bernofsky comes a truly unique contribution to the trombone repertoire – music expressing the joys and challenges of parenthood, through a mother’s eyes. FROM A MOTHER’S JOURNAL is a suite of five movements, Love Letter, A World of Worry, Bedtime Battle, Contentment, and Little Imp, which bubble with warmth, irony, frustration, tenderness, humor … as complex a cocktail of emotions as parenthood itself. The music explores a broad range of trombone techniques, making the 10-minute suite an exciting tour de force for any recital.
The idea for FROM A MOTHER’S JOURNAL originated during car ride from an IWBC conference back to New York City – Nikki Abissi and I were sharing our experiences of the challenges and joys of motherhood, and she said, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a trombone piece written about all the emotions of motherhood?†There certainly wasn’t one that I knew about! Not long after, she contacted me about writing her exactly that piece.I thought that this was definitely a concept for a piece whose time had come, and I was immediately on board with the project. She sent me some short descriptions of some of her experiences, from the frustration of getting a rambunctious baby to go to sleep at bedtime to the boundless love she felt for not just her baby but her husband, as a father, as well. I wrote each anecdote into a short movement, and the result was a collection of musical vignettes covering a range of moods and textures as well as trombone techniques. Since I, too, am a mother, I filtered her anecdotes through my own lens, and I consider this piece to be not just a biography of Nikki but also my own autobiography.
